Share This Story!

Calif. residents shocked awake by quake

NAPA. Calif. — Residents of this picturesque town were awakened with a shock early Sunday as a magnitude-6.0 earthquake struck the region. "It was shaking so hard I was barely able to get myself and my

NAPA. Calif. — Residents of this picturesque town were awakened with a jolt early Sunday as a magnitude-6.0 earthquake struck the region.

"It was shaking so hard I was barely able to get myself and my daughter out," said Douglas Edwards, 27, a Napa resident, adding the earthquake woke him up from a sound sleep. "When I stood up, the floor moved so much, I fell back down again. I ran outside and you could see the transformers exploding in the sky. It was just flash, flash, flash."

The quake struck at 3:20 a.m. PT near American Canyon about 6 miles southwest of Napa, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It's the largest quake since the Loma Prieta temblor in 1989.

Edwards said his home was completely wrecked. Everything fell off the walls and furniture was upended. The only thing that didn't crash to the floor, he said, was a framed picture of the Last Supper.

Rubble that fell from the Vintner's Collective tasting room on Main Street lays on the sidewalk after a 6.0 earthquake struck the Napa Valley area. The building has been red-tagged, which means no one can enter until officials inspect the structure.
Monica Davey, European Pressphoto Agency

Elvira Balbazar, an employee at the 3J's Oriental Market, cleans up after an earthquake on Aug. 24 in American Canyon, Calif. A large earthquake caused significant damage in California's northern Bay area, igniting fires and sending at least 87 people to a hospital.
Rich Pedroncelli, AP

A room at The Alexandria Square building crumbled during an earthquake in Napa, Calif. Officials in the city of Napa say 15 to 16 buildings are no longer inhabitable after the magnitude-6.0 earthquake.
Noah Berger, AP

It took several people to move one of the aisle shelves back into place at the Ranch Market in Napa, Calif, after the earthquake. It was one of few stores open for business near downtown Napa after the 6.0 earthquake rocked the area.
Jessica Brandi Lifland for USA Today

Hannah Housley, the owner of Ranch Market, takes an order at the door of her store near downtown Napa after the earthquake. The Ranch Market was selling items at the door until the store was cleaned up enough to be open properly for business.
Jessica Brandi Lifland for USA Today

Guests who evacuated their rooms at the Andaz hotel in Napa, wait for a ride to another hotel after their hotel suffered moderate damage in the magnitude-6.0 earthquake.
Peter DaSilva, European Pressphoto Agency

A truck navigates around a buckled section of California's Highway 12 after a magnitude-6.0 earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area at 3:20 a.m. PT near Sonoma, Calif., on Aug. 24.
Peter DaSilva, European Pressphoto Agency

A California Highway Patrol officer redirects traffic from a buckled section of California's Highway 12 after a magnitude-6.0 earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area on Aug. 24.
Peter DaSilva, European Pressphoto Agency

Mike Desimoni said he drove to downtown Napa to see how his property there had fared after the quake.

"It was bad. Worse than the '89 quake," he said, referring to the Loma Prieta quake. "It rolled for about 30 seconds."

​

His family purchased the Alexandria Building in downtown Napa in the 1990s. The building had been earthquake-retrofitted.

Now the roof hangs precariously over the sidewalk and bricks and rubble fill the sidewalk and street in front of it.

"We're going to rebuild and move forward. That's all you can do. "

By 10 a.m. PT downtown Napa was calm but buzzing with the sounds of helicopters overhead, glass being swept up and hammers and drills going as shop owners worked to board up windows shattered by the powerful temblor. At AUL Corporation, which services used car contracts, over a dozen workers came in to help clean up.

"The sprinkler lines broke and we got flooded, said CEO Luis Nieves.

He led a reporter up the darkened staircase to offices on the top two floors. The floor was awash in several inches of water, with magazines, files and bits of ceiling tile turning it into something of a slalom course. The office smelled of stagnant water.

"We've had drills for this," he said. His business data was backed up online, "so we're still up and running."

His office will relocate to a space in nearby Fairfax while the building in downtown Napa is cleaned, which his office manager estimates will take a week.

Nieves has an extensive art collection that hangs in the offices. "I think if people spend most of their day in a space they should have something to look at." He and several employees were going around with flashlights picking fallen paintings up off the water logged carpet and propping them up in tables so they could dry.

"Everyone's fine, that's what matters," he said. "And we didn't go down at all – the drills worked."